Circles of ProminenceNew Theory on Facial Beauty:

Ideal Dimensions of the Ears | Nose | Lips

By Dr. Philip Young

Aesthetic Facial Body Plastic Surgery 2015Bellevue, Washington

AAFPRS Dallas Fall Meeting

• Hello my presentation is on studying some further elements of a new theory on facial beauty called the Circles of Prominence

• Specifically we are going to be studying some key dimensions in the Ears, Nose and Lips

• I’m from Bellevue Washington Home of Bill Gates, Microsoft and Starbucks

• The Circles of Prominence is a theory that was published in the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery in 2006 and Received the Sir Harold Delf Gillies Award from the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

• When you ask a group of people if they were to put a circle within the box in the most pleasing way, most will choose that circle to be in the center of the box. This subconsciously satisfies our desire for things to be in order.

Eyes?

Nose?

Mouth?

• In the same thought as that circle within the box, within the oval of the face there are objects that must be symmetrically related to satisfy this same desire of human being’s preference for order. The iris, nasal tip and lower lip will be centered much like that circle within the box. When this is achieved, a basic element of beauty is satisfied which ultimately promotes the appreciation of beauty within the face.

• A Follow up paper supporting this idea was published in the American Journal of Cosmetic Surgery in March of 2015

• The Circles of Prominence hypothesizes that the location of the iris, nasal tip and center of the lower lip related to this basic order we just discussed further arranges the face into 3 obliques

• The association of the nasal tip with the iris creates the first oblique

• The second oblique starts from the center of the lower lip and is delineated by the upper cheek shadowing and the top of the ear

• The third oblique starts at the mentum and ends at the bottom of the ear.

• A part of this study tests the validity of these obliques and specifically the 2nd oblique

8 Sections studying different examine 4 thingsThe vertical positioning of the ears

The total width of the lips (comm-comm)The total width of the puckering of the lips (highlight)

The height and positioning of the nose

1.25 3.57 2.65 2.53

Data Based on 176 Surveys

0 IW 1 IW Sup2 IW Sup 1 IW Inf

Question 1: Ear Vertical Positioning

• We created 8 questions 4 made with line drawings and 4 made with morphed pictures

• The first 2 of these questions studied this concept that the first oblique and in turn the second oblique will dictate where the ear is positioned in the most ideal manner

• To our knowledge the ideal location of the ear has not been accurately determined

• We asked 176 participants to judge each picture and assign a 1 to the most aesthetically pleasing picture and a 4 for the least aesthetically pleasing picture

• Each picture was thus given a 1 through 4, the lower number averaged among the 176 surveys would be the most pleasing picture

• In this first question we morphed an actual patient and placed the top of the ear aligned with the second oblique and the other pictures were either 1 and 2 IW superior to this point, and 1 IW inferior to this point

• We varied the pictures by 1 IW to follow our original hypothesis that beauty is based on multiples of the Iris Width

• Of the 176 participants, the ear aligned with the second oblique was found to be the most pleasing at 1.25, supporting this idea that the first and in turn the second oblique dictates the ideal location of the ear. This also supports the idea that the face is arranged in oblique relationships in an ideal face

P-Value P-Value Best 

Picture(s)

H0 : All Equal H0 : Top 2 Equal  

<0 .001 <0.001 1

Question 1:

• The Data seemed clearly significant from a statistical standpoint as the null hypothesis that they were all equal preferences was rejected at a significant level of less than 0.05 p value

• This was also true when the top 2 pictures were compared.

2.77 3.49 2.19 1.62

Distance from 1st Oblique in Distances of Iris Widths

Question 2: Ear Vertical PositioningLine Drawings

0 IW1 IW Sup2 IW Sup1 IW Inf

• Using line drawings the 0IW was again found to be the most pleasing at 1.62 further supporting the idea that the location of the top of the ear and ear in general is influenced by the first and ultimately the second oblique

• .

P-Value  P-ValueBest 

Picture(s)

H0 : All Equal H0 : Top 2 Equal  

< 0.001  < 0.001  4

Question 2:

• Again this reached statistical significance

Lip Study Morphed Pictures:

The Length of the Lips were varied between 6, 5, 4, 3 IW

3.76 1.91 1.62 2.8

6 IW 4 IW5 IW 3 IW

Question 3:

• Next we studied the total length of the lips and varied the distances from 3,4,5 and 6 iris widths

• Based on the 176 participants, the 4 IW lip length was found to be the most pleasing at 1.62

• We had predicted in the original study that 5IW would be the most ideal so this was surprising but this would be more clear to me as we looked at the data

P-Value P-Value Best 

Picture(s)

H0 : All Equal H0 : Top 2 Equal  

<0.001  <0.001 3

Question 3:

• Again this reached statistical significance

Lip Study Line Drawings:

3.48 1.58 3.13 1.85

The Length of the Lips were varied between 6, 5, 4, 3 IW

3 IW5IW6 IW 4 IW

Question 4:

• The line drawing showed something interesting in that the 5IW picture was found to be the most ideal at 1.58 instead of the 4IW line drawing which was next most pleasing at 1.85

• This was what we had predicted in our original study• This result was different from the morphed pictures however• What this suggested to us for the first time was that the Iris width and

multiples of the iris width may not be what people look at simply because its too complex to add up visually. But what people really look at is the complete distance from iris to iris. The lip is likely most ideal when the lip length is within the iris to iris width and likely the distance from medial limbus to medial limbus as is seen in both the line and morphed pictures.

• The reason 4 IW was found to be ideal in the morphed pictures is because the eyes are closer set in the morphed model. But in both pictures that were found to be most pleasing by our 176 participants the lip length was around the distance of medial limbus to medial limbus.

Area P-Value P-Value Best 

Picture(s)

  H0 : All Equal H0 : Top 2 Equal  

4 < 0.001   0.048  2

Question 4:

• This was also statistically significant

The Lip Pucker was then varied from 2IW, 3IW, 4IW, and 5IW

3.79 1.56 1.98 2.71

5 IW 2 IW3 IW 4 IW

Question 5:

• Next we studied the length of the pucker in the lips• Because the pucker is always smaller than the total lip length

we studied 2,3,4, and 5 IW lengths for the pucker instead of 3,4,5, and 6 IW for total lip length

• What we found from 176 participants is that the 3 IW was most preferred which we predicted in our original study

• Although we predicted the correct answer it is possible that what people are really visually connecting with is the length of the horizontal eye aperture and not by multiples of the Iris Width, much like what we had discussed with the distance from iris to iris in the previous questions

• In the same vein, the lip pucker may be more related ideally to the horizontal eye aperture and not multiples of the iris width as the data analysis would show us

Area P-Value P-Value Best 

Picture(s)

  H0 : All Equal H0 : Top 2 Equal  

5 < 0.001 0.09 2 & 3

Question 5:

• The data being equivocal seemed to support this new insight even though 3 IW seemed to dominate in the all equal null hypothesis, It was not significant with the top 2 equal hypothesis

• The top 2 data null hypothesis was not rejected and seemed to suggest that 2IW and 3IW for lip pucker were both preferred

Lip Pucker Line Drawings: 2,3,4, and 5 Iris Widths

1.51 1.60 2.99 3.90

3 IW 2 IW 5 IW4 IW

Question 6:

• In the Line Drawings we found again that the 3 IW Lip pucker was found to be the most ideal - which we had again predicted in the original study

• Again instead of multiples of the iris width it could simply be that the ideal pucker is equal to the horizontal eye aperture

P-Value  P-ValueBest 

Picture(s)

H0 : All Equal H0 : Top 2 Equal  

< 0.001  0.7 1 & 2

Question 6:

• Again 3 IW and 2 IW seemed to be most preferred and the data couldn’t differentiate between the top 2 but it was statistically significant when they were all considered together

• This was the same as the result found in the morphed picture question

• Hence a further study posing the horizontal eye aperture length for the pucker against different lengths would clarify this discrepancy

3.50 2.89 1.91 1.75

Nose Length varied from 0 IW, 1 IW superior, 1IW inferior, 2IW inferior

0 IW1 IW inf 1 IW sup2 IW inf

Question 7:

• Next we wanted to study the length of the nose• It was the Circles of Prominence hypothesis that the nose

length started at the top of the irises• Visually people see the iris the most, I hypothesized that the

viewer would then follow the irises over to the central part of the face and it would be most logical to have the nose start at that level and proceed downward toward the tip

• We set the length of the nose to start at the top of the irises labeled 0 IW, and we morphed the picture to have the nose start 1 IW superior, and 1 to 2 IW inferior to the top of the horizontal level of the iris

• In this morphed study the 0IW was found to be most ideal at 1.75 as we had predicted

P-Value P-Value Best 

Picture(s)

H0 : All Equal H0 : Top 2 Equal  

< 0.001  0.1 3 & 4

Question 7:

• The data was significant when all the pictures were compared but lost its signficance when the top 2 were compared

• What you can conclude is that people may prefer the nose to start at the horizontal level of the iris but if they were to consider the next most pleasing it could be a longer versus a shorter nose

Line Drawings Nose Length: 0 IW, 1 IW superior,1 IW inferior, 2 IW inferior

2.12 2.63 2.45 2.80

0 IW 2 IW inf1 IW inf1 IW sup

Question 8:

• The morphed picture results are supported here with the line drawings as well where the nose starting at the top of the irises noted to be at 0 Iris widths is the most preferred at 2.12

P-Value P-Value Best 

Picture(s)

H0 : All Equal H0 : Top 2 Equal  

0.008 0.003 1

Question 8:

• The data here seemed stronger in supporting that the nose is most ideal starting at the horizontal level of the iris as both All Equal and Top 2 Equal null hypotheses were rejected

• It may have been that the line drawings more clearly showed the location of the start of each nose compared to the morphed picture

Conclusion:• The Circles of Prominence states that everything in the

face has an ideal between zero and infinity• Because humans spend so much time looking at the iris,

the size and shape of the iris dictates this ideal for many objects

• This study looks specifically at the position of the ears, length of the lip pucker, total lip length, the start of the nose and ultimately nose length

• What we are seeing is that the iris can dictate shapes that are closer to its size. But when other distances significantly exceed one iris width the viewer begins to use:

• 1. the horizontal eye aperture• 2. the total distance between the irises• This is based on simplicity. What is the simplest way to

make the face fit all together without being too complex in the mind

• This study further supports the idea that the face is organized into obliques dictated by the relationship of the iris with the nasal tip.

• In Conclusion:• The Circles of Prominence states that everything in the face

has an ideal between zero and infinity• Because humans spend so much time looking at the iris, the

size and shape of the iris dictates this ideal for many objects• What we are seeing is that the iris can dictate shapes that

are closer to its size, such as the width of the nasal bridge, width of the tip, height of the lower lip, and distance from bottom of eyebrow to eyelid margin. But when other distances significantly exceed one iris width it gets too complex visually to add up, so the viewer begins to use:

• 1. the horizontal eye aperture• 2. the total distance between the irises

• This is based on simplicity. What is the simplest way to make the face fit all together without being too complex in the mind

• Most Importantly everything is related to the eyes in some way

• And beauty is based on what we spend the most time looking at when we see and interact with other faces which are the iris, total horizontal length of the eye, and iris to iris distance

• This study further supports the idea that the face is organized into obliques dictated by the relationship of the iris with the nasal tip and a scientific explanation for the ideal location of the ear

• The data also has found support for the ideal location for the start of the nose and ultimately total nose length, the ideal length and shape of the lip pucker and ideal lip length

• Thank You